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Mar7

Fellowship of Christian Athletes helps student deal with peer pressure, negative influences

3/7/2010 9:51:00 AM by DAVID WILHELM | News-Democrat

Keeping athletes on the right path: Fellowship of Christian Athletes helps student deal with peer pressure, negative influences
BY DAVID WILHELM
News-Democrat

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes had a modest beginning in 1954.

It was the brainstorm of Don McClanen, then the basketball coach and athletic director at Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton.

"He was shaving in the shower," said Erik Arneson, the metro-east director of FCA. "He looked at a razor he had and realized he bought that razor because an influential athlete said, 'This is the only razor I use. You should use it, too.'

"It was from a commercial. He bought it because of the influence of an athlete. So he said, 'What if we utilize the influence that athletes have to help people grow in their faith in Jesus Christ?'"

McClanen discussed his idea with many people, including Branch Rickey, the popular baseball executive. Rickey's signing of Jackie Robinson in 1947 had broken the color barrier in the sport.

"He got a hold of this vision and decided, 'Hey, you know, this makes sense,'" Arneson said of Rickey. "He helped generate the funds to have the first camp in 1954. It was in Estes Park, Colo., and athletes from all different realms ... got together and celebrated that they were Christian athletes."

Fifty-six years later, FCA exists on about 7,000 college, high school and middle school campuses in the United States. It has 23 "huddles" at schools in the metro-east counties of St. Clair, Madison and Monroe.

Membership is at 1,500 students at metro-east schools: Alton, Althoff, Belleville East, Belleville West, Civic Memorial, Collinsville, Edwardsville, Columbia, Freeburg, Granite City, Highland, Marissa, Mascoutah, Metro-East Lutheran, New Athens, O'Fallon, Triad, McKendree University, Collinsville Middle School, Highland Middle School, Lincoln Middle School in Edwardsville and Wolf Branch School in Swansea.

In the beginning

Most young people have attended an organized summer camp, perhaps a weeklong retreat with other kids.

While the experience can be meaningful, Arneson, 35, said FCA envisioned making a longer-lasting impact on young people.

"It started as a camping ministry," Arneson said. "Students come to camp and they love it. They say, 'This is the best time.' But what happens two weeks later is they go back to some of their old ways. The encouragement isn't there. FCA, back in the '50s, was realizing people were coming away from this camp, but were losing some of the things they learned there.

"What they decided to start were these campus-based, student-led groups in schools. It's a group of athletes coming together talking about, 'How can I become a better athlete? How can I honor God through my sport? How can I also help others come to know Jesus Christ?'

"That's our mission. We present Christ to athletes and coaches. That's why we exist."

In the metro-east, about 50 coaches or teachers serve in supervisory roles, attending as many as four monthly meetings at each school.

"We have to be student-led," Arneson said. "We obey the law of the land, and the law of the land (mandates that) a teacher who is employed by the state cannot advocate faith one way or the other. So the students lead it. We do have a coach or a teacher who is there in a supervisory capacity, but that's really the main thing they're there for --to supervise and make sure the kids stay on track and aren't getting unruly.

"But these are sharp kids. They're the cream of the crop."

Coaches also attend their own huddles --they exist at Belleville West, Highland, McKendree and O'Fallon --where they discuss their faith and ways they can become better coaches and leaders.

Helping kids cope

FCA works most effectively in high schools, Arneson said. Athletes, like their classmates who don't participate in sports, face many tough decisions --including whether to use alcohol or engage in sexual activity.

Arneson recently attended meetings at Althoff and Triad.

"There were 12 students and a coach (Althoff basketball coach Greg Leib) and the topic they were meeting on was leadership," Arneson said of the Althoff meeting. "They were talking about, 'How can I be a better leader?' It was really cool. They were very open and honest of the struggles of being a leader and being an example.

"I went to Triad's meeting and they were meeting on dating and sex and talking about abstinence. The culture is very sexual and the temptation is so rampant. They were talking about how they could stay strong and be a part of that culture at the school that isn't having sex."

Making a bad choice could have long-lasting consequences that dramatically alter one's life. Arneson hopes FCA helps students make the right call.

"There are unfortunate examples of negative influences athletes face," Arneson said. "If we can encourage them in their faith and help them meet their potential as an athlete and a person honoring God, that's going to influence so many parts of society --and ultimately, hopefully, the world."

Althoff High senior Alex Mumphard, a guard on the Crusaders basketball team, joined FCA last summer after being urged by Leib to attend a weekend retreat at Camp Wartburg in Waterloo. Mumphard said his life has been greatly enriched by FCA.

"I knew God. I knew Jesus Christ," Mumphard said. "But not to the extent I do now. It's reassuring.

"When times get tough and I start to stress about college, I know God has an ultimate plan for me and my life. I'm just so thankful for the gift he's given me. It's made my senior year less stressful. I know his ultimate plan for me is to prosper and not harm me."

Mumphard acknowledges the peer pressure that is prevalent, but said FCA has provided the foundation to resist negative influences.

"It's actually not as tough as you would think it would be because I have that excuse of being a Christian and being an athlete," Mumphard said. "I use those two as my main motivations to keep me away from those things and help me be the best person I can."

Mumphard's teammate, junior Tyler Francis, has participated in FCA since fifth grade. Francis is the huddle president at Althoff and leads the regular monthly meetings with other students.

"FCA means a lot to me," said Francis, whose older brother, Michael, also was an FCA leader at the school. "It's a way to be able to show our faith through our sport. It's not glorifying ourselves. It's glorifying God through our sport."

Francis said having a relationship with God helps him meet challenges.

"Being a Christian is always difficult," he said. "But I feel God put all of us here for a reason. No matter what we do, if we follow in his name, everything is going to be all right.

"I love being able to wake up every day and know that everything's going to be all right because I've got him with me. I'm never lonely or anything --no matter what I'm doing. In the deepest, darkest turns of my life, if I just look up, I know he's right there for me."

Mumphard and Francis agree that former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow has been perhaps their biggest role model in FCA.

"Seeing big-time athletes glorify God on television --even when they lose big games --is really motivational," Mumphard said. "It helps me realize that with God, all things are possible. I just have to glorify him for the gifts I have."

Athletes from all denominations are welcome in FCA.

"We have Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics --all different kinds of denominations," Arneson said. "We stay away from the denominational divisions. We're not going to talk about baptism or worship styles. We're going to talk about Jesus Christ and his salvation message.

"John 14:6 says, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.' That's our message. That's what we encourage. Anyone is welcome at FCA. Our message isn't going to change."

For more information on FCA, call 636-827-7103 or visit www.stlfca.org.